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We happily, mindlessly, put our tech everywhere. Our tech sits motionless, operating in near—and sometimes complete—silence and yet is full of life, working at incomprehensible speeds and processing unbelievable amounts of data—and our tech never sleeps. Yet all this life is completely invisible.

Your phone is rammed full with sensors taking readings at rates faster than you can comprehend and storing this all … um… somewhere. Invisible.

Your computer runs on software written in a programming language that has been converted into non-human-readable files which live on the device and cannot be deleted. Invisible.

Your computer takes your data and beams it across the world in packets of electromagnetic radiation which travel at the speed of light. Literally invisible.

The life of tech is indeed invisible, but this is only half of the story. The life of tech has been made invisible exclusively to you, the user.

Mr Software

Allow me to tell a ridiculous short story.

You’re walking through a park with your friends and you all decide to take a group photo. Everyone knows their roles - it’s a well-rehearsed routine. You’re the designated cameraman, so you unlock your phone and turn on the camera. Your friends automatically position themselves behind you in anticipation. However, just as you begin to raise your arm up into position, a masked man rushes in front of you and in one smooth motion he grabs your phone, sits on a nearby bench and connects the phone to his laptop. The absurdity of the situation leaves you all stunned but before you can even set aside your shock and react to this man, he disconnects your phone, stands back up, and returns it to you - his actions are an almost perfect reverse of how the phone was initially snatched (it appears he too has a well-rehearsed routine). “Done” he says. He runs off.

The phone was out of your hands for maybe 10 seconds. You’re flustered, but your friends are still in position.

(And now to make this story thoroughly ridiculous)

You raise your arm and take the photo.

Now that story was probably very boring and certainly unbelievable, but I can use it to make a valid point. Believe it or not, but the masked man in my story is real and has been performing these actions on you for years, though in reality his actions do not leave you flustered, for his actions are silent. This masked man is real and his name is “Software”. While you use your tech, Mr Software is hard at work behind the scenes. And you behave as if his actions do not matter. Why? Because Mr Software is invisible.

In the hopes that maybe this point will stick, I submit to you in plain terms:

Software is a person

Edgy, right? I picked a strange-sounding phrase in the hopes that the principle will stick. Now, software may not be a real person in the most literal sense, but software is a person in the sense that every single action performed by software was designed by a person. If your software listens to you, if it records you, if it automatically transmits your data, if it decides to promote certain ideas in particular months of the year, it is because a person made it so. In many cases, if there is software in your room, a person is right there with you.

I state clearly, “software is a person” because of the average person’s failure to seriously acknowledge the implications of this principle. There are things you would not do if a stranger was in the room. Apply it to your tech.

This should be obvious. And yet I’m here creating a whole website for it.

Metadata …

I’m sure you already have a reasonable idea of what data is: information. Metadata, on the other hand, might be a new concept to you. Simply put, metadata is data about data.

• That text file on your laptop? Data. The file size information displayed alongside it? Metadata.

• That private message you just wrote on your favourite state-sponsored messaging app? Data. The “sender” and “recipient” tags attached to that message? Metadata.

• Your heart rate readings, taken by your smart watch? Data. The exact GPS coordinates at which each heart rate reading was taken? Metadata.

What’s in a selfie?

Let us get slightly technical for a moment. You probably have not heard of something called EXIF data. EXIF data is a type of metadata that’s used for image files. Inside every picture taken on your phone, invisible to you, is EXIF data: hundreds (maybe, I didn’t count) of additional tags of information captured at the moment the picture is taken.

“What does this ‘EXIF data’ look like?”, you may ask. Good question. Let’s find out.

Many technical topics are converging here but please permit me to keep my explanation brief as I try to make my point. On my desktop/laptop computer, I can type a very basic command (inside a program called a “shell”) which will unveil all the EXIF data inside of an image file:

> exiftool <file_name>

To quickly explain the command above, exiftool is the name of the program I am using to analyse my image file. <file_name> is just a placeholder for the real name of the actual file I’m looking at. In practice, you might write a command that’s more like:

> exiftool "private selfie.jpeg" 

I have used exiftool several times to have a curious browse of image files in my possession. To answer your question about what EXIF data looks like, I ran exiftool on an image file that a friend sent to me and here is the result.

Now that’s a lot of information. What does it all mean? Even I don’t fully know. But I do know this: some of that metadata is not necessary for the file to function and is only captured because the makers of the technology know they can do so without the user noticing/caring. ¹

“Yeah well I can’t see that data and I don’t really know what that stuff means so I don’t care”. Stop it. Please.

Invisible lies

Let us continue with EXIF data. If you had a look at the list, you may have noticed that “GPS” is mentioned a number of times.

Exactly why are your GPS coordinates being silently embedded into every picture you take? Some reasons will inevitably be legitimate. But for some others, maybe not so much. With a little bit of basic deduction, we can arrive at least one example of your metadata use that should be cause for concern. Allow me to elaborate.

In your smartphone, there is a “permissions manager”. This is simply a place in the settings where you can, well, manage permissions. Your smartphone has GPS functionality embedded inside of it and you can use the permissions manager to select which apps have access to your GPS location. Now, consider your favourite social media app. Let’s go with Instagram. Let’s imagine that you used your permissions manager to give Instagram access to your photo gallery (so that you can share your lovely mirror selfies), but you denied it access to your GPS data because you understand that Instagram does not need to know your exact location (or your approximate one, for that matter).

Simple right? No.

Let us turn our attention to your camera app. What if you had used your permissions manager to grant your camera app access to your GPS location? In such a case, Instagram would still effortlessly have access to your GPS location, even though you denied it access through your permissions manager. How? Well, you gave Instagram access to all your photos, and you gave you camera app access to your location. So, if I must spell it out, all your photos contain EXIF data that includes your GPS location - and you handed this EXIF data directly to Instagram by allowing them access to your gallery.

Mr Software strikes once again.

What has just happened? Didn’t you deny Instagram access to your GPS location? Well, yes, I guess. However, your permissions manager pretended to be your friend, but in reality, from the moment you finished saving your settings, your permissions manager was busy making back alley deals with all your other apps. You explicitly said “Don’t give Instagram access to my location” and yet Instagram still has access to your location. And not a single rule was broken. Well, how? Were you hacked? No. Simply put, Instagram know the rules. And you do not.

Invisible.

I can guarantee that several apps on your phone are mercilessly scraping all the metadata from any photo (or file) to which you grant it access. Understand the principle.

Understand the principle some more. You are being lied to. The invisible nature of software facilitates lies.

Think the above doesn’t really happen? Think Big Tech play by the rules? You’re cute. Convinced yourself I’m overreacting? Keep reading.

Invisible apathy

What is the typical response to this kind of information?

“Bro it’s actually not that deep.”
“Well, what can you do?” *sarcastically*
“Okay.” *returns to aggressive scrolling*

In other words, apathy. Your invisible tech has bred in you invisible apathy - invisible in that you do not seriously acknowledge it. This is apathy by design, by the way. Our engagement with the tech world is a tightly controlled and one-sided affair. Our points of access into this almost completely invisible world consist of hyper-streamlined, ultra-convenient, often cute interfaces through which we type and swipe.

Of course you’re apathetic. Your phone screen provides you with everything you want. It meets all your needs. Connects you to all your friends (allegedly). Supplies endless memes. Directs your every step (literally).

The phone screen is your friend.

Of course you’re apathetic. Thousands and thousands of hours of research. Billions upon billions of dollars. Endless advertisements. All squashed into the magic screen that just makes you feel so good.

The phone screen is grooming you.

Of course you’re apathetic. Your groomers have their way with you and you don’t feel a thing. In fact, you feel great.

The phone screen is a one-way mirror.

Indeed it is nearly impossible to take an invisible threat seriously. But that does not make the threat any less real. Just ask anyone who has ever been hacked - they won’t struggle to tell you of the pain the invisible threat can inflict.

Of course you’re apathetic, but you don’t have to stay that way.

SUBDUE.

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